Beetle Bailey Smiler from USPS . . .

USPS Unveils New Stamp

at Mizzou

Featuring Beetle Bailey

The U.S. Postal Service is honoring a classic cartoon character with mid-Missouri roots at a ceremony on the University of Missouri campus.

The University of Missouri is hosting an event to commemorate the recently released Beetle Bailey postage stamp. A stamp depicting sad-sack soldier Beetle Bailey and Sgt. Orville Snorkel, is part of the new "Sunday Funnies" series released in July 2010. The other stamps in the series feature Calvin and Hobbes, Archie, Garfield and Dennis the Menace.

The 60-year-old cartoon's creator is Mort Walker, a 1948 MU graduate. He based many of the early characters on his fraternity brothers. The cartoon's setting of Camp Swampy is loosely based on Mort Walker's Army stint at Camp Crowder near Neosho.

The Beetle Bailey stamp release coincides with the 11th anniversary of the campuswide Mizzou Botanic Garden. A statue of Beetle Bailey that pays homage to Mort Walker is part of one of the campus gardens.

A ceremony is set for 11 AM Friday, August 27th, outside the Reynolds Alumni Center, where the Beetle Bailey statue welcomes visitors.

Guests at the event will include Mort Walker’s assistant, Bill Janocha, Chancellor Emeritus Richard Wallace, Columbia’s Postmaster Cindy Bolles, and a costumed Beetle Bailey himself.

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